It had been a week since Qrow and Raven arrived at Beacon to help take care of Ruby. The two had immediately taken over the responsibility of being by Ruby's side at all times so that her friends could go to their classes. The two hunters watched over the young Rose diligently, and did everything they could to take care of her needs. However, despite their best efforts she wasn't getting any better. They knew she wouldn't, but had hoped in their hearts that she would. The two were torn between praying that they could spend more time with the sickly girl, and praying that she wouldn't have to be in pain anymore, even if they knew what would have to happen for that second prayer to come true.

Raven opened her crimson eyes slowly, taking in the area around her. She and Qrow hadn't slept in the same spot more than once since arriving at Beacon. The two always just fell asleep in random parts of the dorm, and they always scanned the area around them when they woke, just to make sure that they wouldn't disturb anyone by moving. As she scanned the area with her eyes she realized she was still in Ruby's bed, as the silver-eyed girl had asked Raven to cuddle with her last night. Feeling a warmth pressing into her stomach she realized that Ruby hadn't moved since then either and she could also feel Ruby's steady, albeit a bit weak, breaths. A warm smile crossed the black haired woman's face as she reached over to pet Ruby's head.

"Good morning, little Rose," she whispered softly. "I'm glad to see you're okay this morning."

A short moment later Ruby's head looked up at her and the young girl spoke. "Not really okay," she whispered out painfully. "But thanks mom." She offered the best smile she could manage as she finished speaking.

"No problem at all, Ruby," Raven responded with a small, forced smile of her own. "Do you need anything?"

She was answered by a slight shake of Ruby's head. "Can we stay like this?"

"Of course, Ruby," Raven responded as she moved to make Ruby slightly more comfortable. "I'll stay here as long as you want."

They stayed like that for an hour before the others started to wake up. The two watched in silence as Ruby's team got ready for classes, and answered with silent smiles when they were told to have a good day. Ruby's silence was forced upon her, as she could no longer muster the energy required to speak above a whisper. Raven's silence was more out of dread than anything else. She and Qrow had been watching Ruby carefully over the past week, and they both realized that every day Ruby deteriorated more than the previous day. Suddenly, they found that the idea that Ruby was the one who had lived the longest with this disease wasn't quite as unbelievable.

After the rest of the team left, Qrow got up from where he was pretending to sleep in the corner. He, like Raven, always woke up earlier than any of the students in Beacon. There were even times where they hadn't gone to sleep for days at a time, and looking at Qrow, one could assume he hadn't slept in a couple of days, which wasn't that uncommon for the man. The irony of a full-grown man unable to take care of himself, yet perfectly able to take care and worry over someone else was not lost on Raven as she raised her eye-brow at him.

"Have trouble sleeping, little crow?" She asked sweetly, earning a scowl from her brother.

"I'm older than you," he shot back. "And no. I'm just keeping watch at night."

"Watch from what? Mosquitoes?"

"Those things are more of a spawn of pure evil than even the grimm."

"Well, aren't we just so lucky that you're here to protect us from the face of pure evil?" Raven's voice held more than a little sarcasm. After she was done speaking she felt Ruby shaking gently with small giggles. She smiled down at her step-daughter, happy that she was able to give her yet another happy memory.

The trio passed most of the day in a similar manner. The adults teasing each other in a playful manner and Ruby listening in and laughing silently to herself. It wasn't anything too special, but they all cherished it. It was something they were doing as a family, and that was something that they had sorely missed out on recently. So caught up in the banter were Qrow and Raven that they didn't even realize that Ruby hadn't said a word all day until the classes were almost out.

"Ruby," Qrow said soothingly, internally berating himself for not noticing earlier. "You haven't spoken all day today. Are you that bad? Or is something else bothering you?"

Silver eyes stared into his own, betraying the intense amount of pain the small girl was in, as well as her incredible weakness. "Both," the girl said so softly that only Raven could hear. "I… I don't want you two to be here when I die."

Raven stared at the sickly girl in shock. "What? Why?"

Qrow cocked his head to the side. "What'd she say?"

"She doesn't want us to be here when she dies," Raven said sadly.

Qrow opted to look at Ruby before motioning for her to continue speaking as he took a few steps forward.

"The closer I get to dieing," the silver-eyed girl began weakly. "The more terrified I get. I don't want your last memory of me to be one of me being a coward."

Raven pulled the small girl into a gentle hug. "You don't need to worry about that Ruby. You're the bravest person I know. Even more so that your Uncle over there."

"However," Qrow said after a few moments of silence. "If that is truly how you feel, then we will respect your wishes."

Ruby nodded slightly, no longer able to find the energy to speak. Her nod was enough however as Qrow stood up.

"We'll leave when your team gets back from classes," he said as comfortingly as he could. "I'll make sure everyone remembers how brave you are."

Ruby looked at her Uncle for a few moments before a soft smile found its way onto her lips. She then turned to look at her mom, who had a conflicted look on her face, and gave her a questioning look.

"I'm sorry, Ruby," the crimson-eyed woman said softly. "It's just a little hard to believe that you don't want me to be here for you. Qrow is right though. We need to respect your wishes, but in order to do that… I should probably stand up."

Ruby's smile grew slightly as Raven got up and started pacing around the room. She truly loved Qrow and Raven, and while she greatly appreciated how much they were willing to sacrifice to be there for her, she felt that they had sacrificed too much already. They needed to get back to work. Remnant needed them more than she did. She wasn't at all surprised when the rest of the time they had to spend with her passed by in silence. She had just told them something that they really didn't want to hear, but she would always feel it was necessary.

After about thirty minutes, Ruby's friends opened the door and entered one by one. Qrow almost ran into Jaune on his way out, with Raven only a few footsteps behind, leaving most of the people in the dorm to wonder what exactly had happened.

"What's up with them?" Yang asked in confusion. "They didn't even say bye."

"I told them to leave, they've spent enough time on me," Ruby answered weakly.

"Was that really the right thing to do?" Pyrrha asked curiously. "I mean they obviously put family above everything else. Would pushing them away at the end really be a good thing?"

"I don't know Pyrrha," Ruby responded. "But I'm not the only person they need to help, and I've got you guys helping me too."

"I doubt they actually left," Yang said with a slight shrug. "Those two are the sneakiest people you'll ever meet. They're probably in the air ducts or something."

Weiss looked at Yang in disbelief. "We just watched them leave."

"Like I said. Sneaky."

Weiss looked to Ruby for confirmation. When she received the slightest nod from her partner she decided to drop the subject. Instead she walked over to the pained girl and knelt down next to Ruby's bed. "You doing any better today?"

Ruby shook her head slowly. Doing her best to hide the pain that she felt. "Sorry Weiss… I'm actually doing worse."

Weiss hung her head. She was fully aware of what the answer would be, just as she had been the day before, and the day before that, but she had allowed herself to hope that Ruby would miraculously start feeling better one day.

"It's okay Weiss," Ruby said quietly as she reached a hand out to touch Weiss' cheek. "This isn't your fault."

Icy blue eyes stared into silver eyes as Weiss attempted to find the words to respond. A few moments later and still no words came forward so she instead leaned forward and gave her partner a gentle hug. As she pulled away from the hug she looked down and saw that Ruby's eyes were closed. The younger girl appeared to have fallen asleep, an event that may have caused some surprise several days earlier, but now it was accepted that she randomly fell asleep.

Velvet walked up beside Weiss and placed a comforting hand on the white haired heiress' shoulder. The act itself wasn't comforting at all, but the fact that there was someone else feeling the same pain helped a little bit. After a second the rabbit faunus spoke for the first time since entering the room. "Should we leave?"

The question was innocent. When Ruby fell asleep it was due to exhaustion and she generally wouldn't wake up until sometime the next day. Leaving would give team RWBY the ability to do their homework and come closer together as a group without any distractions. Despite the relatively simple question, Weiss didn't have an answer. It took a full minute of silence for anyone to act on the question. Oddly enough it was Jaune.

"Come on guys," he said softly while looking at Ruby's bed. "Let's give them some time to themselves."

Everyone else apparently agreed as everyone who wasn't a member of team RWBY silently headed for the door. Well, everyone but Nora who moved to give each member of team RWBY a hug before heading to the door and closing it quietly behind her.

Team RWBY spent the rest of the day in silence. None of them willing to give voice to any of their fears. The conversation that they knew would be the response, the others trying to comfort them, would be entirely pointless. There was no way to comfort any of them. Yang looked out of the window and pondered. The lilac-eyed girl recalled a time where Ruby had expressed surprise that people cared about the fact that she had almost gotten killed by a beowolf. "I'm going to die anyway," the girl had said at the time. "At least this way it's quick."

At the time Yang couldn't understand why Ruby would say something like that, but watching her sister suffer now she had started to understand. Ruby generally didn't mention the fact that she would rather die today than tomorrow, but it was something that Yang was very much aware of now that she knew about Ruby's condition. The blonde found herself immensely grateful that the red-tipped brunette had survived that day, the things that Ruby had taught her were invaluable, and she hoped that she could live up to her younger sister's legacy one day. Now however, it was time for her to go to sleep. So she hopped into her bed, turned on her side, and proceeded to stare at the wall. Soon both Weiss and Blake decided to try and find some sleep as well, though judging from the amount of fidgeting coming from either of the two's beds, neither was having much success.

The three teammates were stuck trying to go to sleep for a little over half an hour before Blake heard a sound. Her sensitive faunus ears flicked slightly as she sat up and tried to identify the source of the sound. It wasn't until a soft "-an you hea-" reached her ears that she realized that Ruby was trying to get her attention. The raven haired girl jumped from her bed and crossed the room as quickly as she could before kneeling next to her team leader's bed and saying, "I'm here Ruby. What's wrong?"

Ruby's silver eyes were barely opened, and her lips formed a faint grimace of pain. "Blake," she began slowly. Her voice barely audible to even Blake. "I don't think I'm going to make it 'till morning."

A cold ball of dread fell into the pit of Blake's stomach. "What can I do?" She asked earnestly.

"Wake up the others, including CFVY and JNPR, and let them all be here please," the sickly girl breathed out. "I want to be with my friends."

No sooner had the request been made than Blake stood up to come face to face with an already awake Weiss. She then turned around to see that Yang was standing up next to her bed, rather than laying on it. "Ruby… doesn't think she'll make it through the night," Blake choked out sadly. That was, by far, the hardest thing she had ever had to say. "She wants us to go get JNPR and CFVY and bring them here."

Yang nodded from her position by her bed. "You stay here, Blake," the blonde said quietly while walking across the room. "Weiss and I will go do our best to knock loudly." Less than two seconds after she had finished saying that both Weiss and Yang had left the room.

Blake listened to their footsteps travel down the hallway. "I guess they'll wake team JNPR up on the way back," she said softly while kneeling down next to Ruby. "Anything else, I can do for you, Ruby?"

A slight shake of her head was the only response Ruby could give at the time, though her pained eyes seemed told Blake of the smaller girl's fear and pain. Blake looked into Ruby's eyes and felt a need to assure the younger girl, to try and take away at least some of Ruby's fear. The only way she could think of to do so was a hug. So, as gently as she could, she wrapped her arms around the younger girl and laid her head on Ruby's shoulder.

"Don't worry, Ruby," the cat-faunus said, her voice shaking with sorrow. "They'll be here soon."

A small, pained laugh that was more of an unusually strong breath than anything resembling a normal laugh escaped Ruby's lips. "You want to know the one thing about dying that's good?"

Tears started forming in Blake's eyes as she lifted her head to look give Ruby a questioning look.

"I ended up falling in love with all of my friends… and I didn't have to hurt some of you by choosing only one."

Blake gave a weak smile back at Ruby, "We could have worked something out."

"No," Ruby said before a moment of silence. During that moment the red-tipped brunette slowly moved her hand to Blake's head and started moving it gently from side to side in a petting motion. "That wouldn't have worked. It's a nice thought though."

The tears started falling freely from Blake's eyes as she looked at her team leader. "I'm sorry, Ruby."

"Don't be, Blake," the silver-eyed girl responded with the slightest hint of a pained frown. "Don't be sad right now. Close your eyes and focus on all of the happy times you've had with your friends."

Some instinct inside Blake screamed at her to keep her eyes open. It told her that if she closed her eyes, she'd lose Ruby forever. However, she couldn't bring herself to disobey her friend and team leader. So she closed her eyes and started focusing on all of the good times she had shared with team RWBY. Granted the team did spend most of their time studying together in some form or another, but they had all found their own ways to enjoy those moments as well. Those memories weren't the highlights of her time at Beacon though, so she moved past them. She thought about the day Ruby had planned out specifically to make each of her teammates happy, and about how that was the day that her team accepted her faunus heritage. She thought about the all the times she spent playing the Remnant board game with them, and how she eventually learned how to beat them all. A small smile found its way onto her lips as she remembered how eventually, Ruby started cuddling with everyone, and how from then there was a danger of being overloaded by cuteness whenever you walked into the dorm room.

A small purr started rumbling in her throat as the happiness from the memories mixed with the feeling of being petted. A small, sad smile found its way onto her face as she was temporarily able to forget the reason she had for crying. It didn't last long though. Not ten seconds after Blake started purring, Ruby's hand fell from Blake's head, and rested lifelessly on her bed. The sudden lack of being petted brought Blake flying back to reality and her eyes snapped open. What she saw made her tears start flowing once again.

Ruby was laying on her bed, motionless and unbreathing. For the first time in days there was not a hint of pain on her face, rather her face was the picture image of peace. Blake's heart lurched at the pain of losing a friend as important to her as Ruby was and she buried her head into Ruby's shoulder as she allowed herself to fully start crying.

That was the scene that the others, including Qrow and Raven, walked in on. No one left team RWBY's dorm that night, nor did anyone say anything. No one slept in a bed either. Everyone grouped together in one large cluster of bodies on the floor, finding comfort in the closeness of the others as they cried their hearts out for the majority of the night.

A/N

So… That happened. Yeah… I feel terrible now. I'll just… spend the next few weeks crying in the corner now…

Imo's comments: So, I was going to spend this note yelling at Shaded for how he 'ended' everything, but instead I currently am still recovering from spending 5 minutes crying and another 10 minutes sobbing. I joined as a beta reader for this story back in September, but let me tell you, I had no idea what I got myself into. While I adore this story, like many of you readers, I kept for a very long time clinging to the hope that Ruby would survive. Still, with how I am feeling now, as painful as it is, it truly felt like the right way for the story to 'end'. Please feel free to leave a review, I know Shaded appreciates them, and trust me when I saw he definitely put his all into both his chapter, but also the ones before.

Sauron's comments: So I've been in the background for this story (though I told him flat out that he needs Raven.) When Shaded came up with story, I said that "This is Sauron approved." Reading through it and seeing it completed, I just don't know what to say. Knowing where the story comes from adds a new level, a deeper meaning to the overall story. For me, it was an honor to help create this piece of art, and I won't forget being a part of it. (That's saying a lot, cause I don't remember a dang thing.)

Those two both helped me out immensely as I wrote this story. Most of you will never know how difficult this got to write as Wilting Rose Syndrome is actually based off of several different diseases that some of my friends and/or family have. It ended up striking far closer to home than I ever expected it to.

Dark's Comments: When I first started reading this story literally everyone told me not to. Still I read it to support Shaded. Now I can say I never regretted my decision in doing so. All the yelling, all the tears, it was all worth it. Now please leave a review for all the hard work and tears shaded put into this. It was really hard for him to finish, but he never gave up (mainly because we wouldn't let him).

Also… I have three different Epilogues that I plan on writing for this. Do you guys think I should make them a separate story, or just post them here in this story? As I plan on marking this story as complete when this chapter goes up. Also might rename it to A Peaceful Rose.